The generational pop icon armed with hits like 'Dancing On My Own', 'Honey' and 'With Every Heartbeat' will be joined by special guests, Melbourne's own Blusher – a three-piece, dance-pop outfit with a sound landing somewhere between late-night solitude and a 2am dance floor.

It's been a big few years for the trio. They've been named as one of Spotify's RADAR artists, and joined acts like Aurora and Tove Lo as support on their Australian tours, as well as Icelandic musician Daði Freyr across the US and UK.

Robyn's 'Sexistential' Tour is well underway – she's enjoyed dates across Ireland, the UK and Europe thus far, with the US leg recently kicking off in Boston and New York City. It's her first major tour since 2019, featuring her biggest headline shows – so it's a pretty huge deal for a local group like Blusher to feature on the bill.

We spoke to Blusher about their reaction to being asked to join Robyn, what uninitiated audiences can expect from their set, and the impact to the queer community of an environment like a Robyn/Blusher gig, championing joy and freedom of expression.

Opening for someone like Robyn is a pretty huge moment for a Melbourne band. What was your reaction when you found out you’d be joining her on the Australian tour?
We immediately FaceTimed each other and shed a few tears of joy and appreciation.

Robyn has been a major figure in queer pop culture for decades, with songs like ‘Dancing On My Own’ becoming anthems for so many people. What has her music meant to you, both personally, and as a group?
The first time we met up, before we’d even contemplated starting a band and were just writing songs together for fun, we bonded over Robyn. The way she blends universally relatable feelings and melodies with really forward-thinking, underground influences is a huge part of the ethos of our band. She’s such an important person in pop music, and probably a lot of our other favourite artists wouldn’t exist without her.

You’ve had some incredible support slots over the past few years, including Tove Lo, AURORA and Daði Freyr. What have those experiences taught you about performing for a crowd that might be discovering Blusher for the first time?
We loooove being the support act to be honest. We love the challenge of warming up the crowd and trying to induct as many people into the cult of Blusher as we can within our 30 minutes. We’ve learned to come in hot and keep the BPM high. It’s a big part of what inspired us to remix our own songs on our 'rager' EP.

For those who might be at the Robyn gigs. . . Who are Blusher?
We’re three friends from Melbourne who love to sing, write, and produce music together. Our songs are like a conversation in the girls bathroom over a euphoric club pop beat.

There’s something special about queer people coming together on a dancefloor, and your music feels made for those moments. What does that sense of connection mean to you, and how do you hope people feel when they’re listening to Blusher?
We hope a Blusher show feels like a welcoming, safe space where you can be the brightest and most authentic version of yourself. We would love for our music to be the soundtrack to you confessing to your crush, getting ready with your friends or having transcendent moments on the dancefloor. The queer community is so special and important to us and truly just has the most immaculate taste – if we can impress the gays that’s how we know we’ve done a good job.

Are there aspects of Robyn’s career, or approach to music, that you find particularly inspiring?
She’s an artist with a lot of vision and she’s always been, like, years ahead of the game. We’re so inspired by the way she writes about topics that you don’t often hear a lot of in pop – motherhood especially, and having longevity as a woman in the music industry. The way she writes about her sexuality also feels so multifaceted and authentic. She’s not shying away from the messy parts and that just makes it so much more real. She founded her own label and has a lot of control over her career and the music she puts out, which is inspiring.

Your sound moves between late-night introspection and full dancefloor energy, with some pretty unfiltered lyricism thrown in. How do you balance those more vulnerable moments with making music people can dance to?
We love to contrast really femme-feeling, glittery sounds and feelings with raw, gritty, clubby energy. Between the three of us, we have a really wide, diverse, weird range of influences and we love drawing inspiration from a lot of different corners of music and art. You’ve gotta make space in your life for yearning, and also for going hard.

You’ve achieved a lot as a Melbourne band, from Spotify’s RADAR programme to touring internationally. What’s next for Blusher, and what are you most excited for fans to see or hear from you?
We’ve been working on new music all year and we’re really excited to step into this next era of Blusher and show people this world that we’ve been secretly creating between the three of us.

Blusher play Afterpay Arena (Sydney) on 21 November, and Rod Laver Arena (Melbourne) 24 November, opening for Robyn's 'Sexistential' Tour.